Striker stuck his head through the door. “You’re all fueled up.”

Rainbow smiled. “Thanks a lot.”

They’d followed the GPS in the C-130’s cockpit to a tiny airfield in rural Brazil. It was apparently a UTA forward base for making the hop between Africa and the Americas. No one was there when they arrived, so they hastily refueled and disembarked most of the passengers.

Striker, of course, was staying in Brazil. He would help some of the others to get to their embassies and get home.

“You should come visit sometime,” he said.

Rainbow laughed. “As soon as I can stand flying again. I’ll bring my soccer ball.”

Striker stepped back and closed the door. He waved to her through the tiny window.

Rainbow walked forward and sat down in the cockpit. Soarin' glanced over from the pilot's seat. He showed her the new GPS setting, back north. Rainbow nodded. One more flight. She thought about everything she had been through. She thought about who she’d done it for.

“You ready?” said Soarin’ in the headset.

She nodded. “Let’s go home.”

Author's Notes:

I had a rough idea of the plot when I began this story, though had to figure out the interpretation along the way.

I tried to include a little of the feel of Metal Gear Solid V, with the weird things happening in Africa, but didn't find many opportunities. Fighter plane story versus tactical espionage story.

All the aircraft mentioned in the story were plausibly available in Africa, either from a failed governments or surplus sales.

All the food and native plants and animals were also regionally plausible. I really learned a lot about Africa while writing this story.

I toyed with the idea that maybe they were all unknowingly in purgatory after dying, and trying to get out. None of them could remember how they got there, plus Rainbow had thought Soarin' was dead. The magic (animal attacks, diamond mines drying up, fast-growing food crops, fires, mention of laughing sickness) were Rainbow's friends kicking up trouble trying to get her out. The C-130, callsign Mercury, bringing them in and out of the place. I ultimately didn't make this idea an explicit part of the plot, but kept some elements. You can interpret it that way if you want.

When I first started writing, Lightning was slated to be in sort of Wind Rider's position. However, she gradually evolved into a more sympathetic character. Heck, if she was an undercover Interpol agent or spy or something it would fit. After all, she was the only one who recognized the name Phoenix Whitebirch, which is a name most commonly found as part of the US Army chaplain's manual on Wicca. Why did Lion Heart target her? Either for her real or assumed position, or because he thought she was too friendly with Rainbow.

Where is the fictional country of Talongo? Basically, the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The place names I used were slight misspellings of real things in the area.

There were lots of recursions in the plot. Lightning getting in a lick to Clash's face at the end, just like he did to Rainbow in the beginning. That's also a good example of allowing the other characters to shine. Rainbow, as loyalty, is technically only supposed to support. Of course, she has to be her own kind of hero, but the others got plenty of their own moments. Soarin' was arguably the one who drove the escape the hardest. Rainbow wouldn't like thinking she was a secondary character in her own story.

I owe a debt here to the anime Area 88. I got a general idea of the plot from it. I purposely have never watched it, though, because I didn't want to make this story too much like it. Maybe I will now.

Thanks for reading.